Mach 3 help

[richard newman]

Bobby, there must be lots of folks using Mach 3 in the Dallas area. Did you try posting on cnczone for someone to help you? Or on the Mach 3 forum?

I'm getting by just fine with Mach 3, but would much rather have Acorn, but can't afford it now

[bobby milam]

Well, never found anyone in the area and rather than trying to learn Mach 3 now and then have to relearn Acorn, I took gary's advise and bought a computer today and am ordering the Acorn kit. Hopefully it will go smoother than the Mach 3 set up.

[Jim Becker]

I look forward to you documenting the changeover, Bobby. I'm betting that the machine physically is pretty darn good and adding the more modern control setup should put you in a good place going forward. It's only money... LOL

[Bill George]

And after Dinking around with Mach3 setup trying to get my VFD to run my spindle speed, I may just switch over also. Its getting old.

[Bill George]

Bobby did you get it Running!!?? I am almost done with mine, bad BoB interface to ESS and I am on the Home Stretch now.

[bobby milam]

Not yet. I have zero experience with wiring these things up and have been doing a lot of research online and taking it slow to make sure that I don't make any mistakes. Don't want to ruin the Acorn board. Part of my problem is that they don't have schematics for my exact drives. I've been told of another schematic that should work but I've been doing more staring at the machine and trying to trace the original wiring than actually connecting anything yet.

If I had more confidence in wiring and reading the schematics, I'd be finished by now. Learning everything from trial and error.

[Bill George]

Stepper motor driver or servos? Most stepper motor drivers are pretty much the same. I had forgotten you were switching from Mach3 to the Acorn.

[bobby milam]

Stepper motors.

[Bill George]

Stepper motors.

But the problem I see now is you do not know if it ran on the existing power supply and stepper driver. Here is a place to start > http://www.leadshine.com/producttype...stepper-drives or do a google to find the info the Drives you have.

Basically 4 wires out to the stepper motor, then Step and Direction signals which connect to your controller. Those last ones should be the only one you need to change. It would be nice to have your Mach3 loaded and running the XML file they sent you so you can look at the steps and motor tuning.

[bobby milam]

Yeah, I know it ran on the existing stuff. I picked it up from an importer so I got to see it operate before I bought it. Unfortunately, they used their laptop and I had to furnish my own computer. I finally went out tonight and started really working on it and got most of it wired up. I made it seem more difficult than it was inside my own head. I just have to find out where 4 wires for the spindle go and waiting on a db25 breakout board to connect the drives. My next day off I should have it wired up and get to connect to the power and check all the voltage readings then I'll get started on tuning which reading part of the manual seems to be fairly easy in Acorn.

Now I have a little understanding about how it is wired up, I am pretty sure that I could have gotten the mach3 up and going but I'm pretty happy about going to Acorn anyway so I don't mind.

[Bill George]

You will be just fine. The Acorn is a good choice and figuring out the steps and motor tuning will be a trial and error to get it where you want it. If you can load Mach3 and then add in the XML file they sent you can get info off that as a place to start. Acorn has a wonderful support forum and you are not the only one in the world with that machine!

I did a Mill-Drill years ago but it was not Mach3 and with the internet I was able to research and get it running. Used Gecko drives and there is a wealth of information on his website. He even covers stepper set up.

I have my spindle working and running off Mach3 control thanks to the folks at CNCRP and Warp9. Your spindle only has 3 power wires as its 3 phase, the other wire is for the ground.